The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (210 page)

Monday 15

MC Big L

(Lamont Coleman - Harlem, New York, 30 May 1974)

Diggin’ in the Crates Crew

(Children of The Corn)

Changing his identity to MC Big L, Lamont Coleman was the latest in a long line of street rappers who seemed to be break-ing out of the underground. The ebonics-employing freestyler was originally a member of Children of the Corn (with future stars Ma$e and Cam’ron), before he teamed up with DITC (Diggin’ in the Crates Crew) alongside such cohorts as Fat Joe, Lord Finesse, Diamond D, Showbiz and AG. Big L’s first album was
Lfestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous
(1995), an album of well-executed if predictable streetwise fare. This eventually created enough of an impact for Jay-Z’s label Roc-a-fella to come beckoning – but the artist hadn’t long to live.

Just a few blocks from his Harlem apartment, Big L was cornered and shot nine times by 29-year-old gunman Gerard Woodley. The attacker, it appeared, had an ongoing dispute not with Coleman but with his older brother, Lee. With the latter serving time in prison, Woodley – who was already wanted for drug trafficking – presumably felt Big L to be the next best thing. A posthumous DITC album featured much material by the late MC.

Rapper Big Pun - who had associations with DITC-passed on within ayear of Big L (
February 2000). Another collaborator Party Arty died from undisclosed health issues in December 2008.

MARCH

Tuesday 2

Dusty Springfield

(Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien - Hampstead, London, 16 April 1939)

The Springfields

Believed by many to be the finest white female blues singer of her generation, convent-educated Dusty Springfield is often overlooked as the singer who also introduced Britain to Motown back in 1961 – although her later productions perhaps owed more to Phil Spector’s influence than Berry Gordy’s. These sounds were little known in Britain at the time, but were stylishly replicated by a singer destined to become the nation’s favourite during the decade. Eschewing her given name for that of the folk-flavoured trio for whom she sang early in her career, Springfield enjoyed a short run of hits with The Springfields – with her brother Tom and friend Tim Field – including the US-flirting ‘Silver Threads and Golden Needles’ (1962). (The singer had earlier polished her vocal skills with MOR three-piece The Lana Sisters.) Dusty Springfield was close to being a household name by the time ‘I Only Wanna be with You’ (1963) positioned her as the UK’s brightest new female singer. This Burt Bacharach-penned standard – which also achieved hit status in America – was the first of sixteen Top Twenty hits in Britain. While Springfield’s career high was undoubtedly the 1966 chart-topper ‘You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me’, other hits trip off the tongue in a litany of familiarity – ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself’ (1964), ‘In the Middle of Nowhere’ (1965) and ‘I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten’ (1968) among them. The
New Musical Express
awarded Springfield the honour of Best Female Vocalist pretty much every year between 1964 and 1969, while her own UK television series established her as a cross-generation celebrity.

‘Let’s have lunch.’

Dusty Springfield deals with the news of her illness, 1994

The peerless Dusty Springfield: New threads and an old needle

But, disenchanted with her homeland, her career faltering after ten years of almost unbroken success, Dusty Springfield moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Despite having received critical acclaim for her
Dusty In Memphis
album (1969), commercial acceptance began to elude Springfield, who even spent time working as an anonymous session vocalist to make ends meet towards the end of the seventies. An unlikely call from Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of The Pet Shop Boys brought her out of semi-retirement, and the huge hit ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’ (US/UK number two, 1987) encouraged her to move back to London. The record’s triumph prompted further UK hits (some written by The Pet Shop Boys) as the magic of Dusty Springfield unexpectedly caught on again, presumably with the offspring of her original fanbase, who lapped up old standards such as ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ (1969), now rebranded by its inclusion in Quentin Tarantino’s
Pulp Fiction.

A known recluse, Springfield fought many public battles in her time: there was her refusal to play for segregated South African audiences in the early sixties, her dismissal of fame and glamour, her struggles with drink and drug addiction and the apparent contradictions of her sexual identity. In 1994, she was to have a new fight on her hands: true to form, Springfield’s reaction to her breast cancer was as unbending as had been her attitude to most other matters. Springfield was awarded the OBE in recognition of her achievements early in 1999, but by then she was too unwell to collect her accolade; she died from the disease weeks later. Just two months short of what would have been her sixtieth birthday, Dusty Springfield’s funeral procession drew thousands to the streets of Henley-upon-Thames, where their heroine made her final journey in a glass-sided hearse, surrounded by floral tributes. Yet in her final interview only months before, the singer they called an icon had expressed her wish ‘to die as Mary O’Brien’.

Sunday 28

Freaky Tah

(Raymond Rodgers - Queens, New York, 14 May 1971)

The Lost Boyz

Yet another rapper born and killed in the same neighbourhood, Freaky Tah, with his ‘permanent childhood’ pals The Lost Boyz, was an artist who embraced different styles and issues, finding far more to talk about than the glorification of the gangs that had polluted hip-hop music for so long. Sadly, this did not prevent Tah’s own death by violent means.

The Lost Boyz – gravel-voiced MC Tah joined by Mr Cheeks, Pretty Lou and Spigg Nice – created an unusual look, complete with dreadlocks and nappies on their heads. A gold-selling debut album on Universal,
Legal Drug Money
(1996), emphasized its protagonists’ anti-chemical stance, a point of view taken on board by the many who propelled the batch of singles that preceded it into the chart – underground anthems such as ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless’ and ‘Renee’. A self-deprecating follow-up,
Love, Peace and Nappiness
(1997), seemed to further The Lost Boyz’ growing reputation as they won applause from further afield for denouncing the criminal activity of their youth. (The group were to make even more friends by channelling much of their profit back into the local community.)

To celebrate the birthday of Mr Cheeks, Freaky Tah and The Lost Boyz headed to a party at New York’s Four Points Sheraton Hotel – where a sadly familiar scenario was to be played out. As he left the event at around 4 am, Tah was approached from behind by a ski-masked gunman (who presumably wouldn’t have looked out of place among the revellers). His attacker unloaded one fatal shot into the back of the rapper’s head, then fired into the air as he made good his escape. Freaky Tah was declared dead on arrival at Jamaica Hospital. The killing appeared motiveless, but in the days that followed several suspects were pulled in by police – at least two claiming to be the triggerman, which suggests that the taking of a life is still seen very much as a badge of honour on the street. For a while, NYPD looked into a possible connection with the assassination of MC Big L just a few weeks before
(
February 1999),
he and Freaky Tah having recently recorded together.